This is an abridged list from Go Supply Chain - I haven't included the factories that I covered in the last post.

II

A lot of the sites I landed on were stingy in the number of warehouses they list and mix factories with warehouses. Even these lists manage to have Target Import Warehouse, which I understand is big, in the list of large factories; despite the idea of importing something that has already been processed as not a feature of factories but very much one of warehouses. It's even in the name. Only it doesn't appear in this second list.

The staff compiling the second list take 'warehouse' to mean a place where things are stored. They can house items that will be sold to retailers or direct or, equally, they can store data or records. Artefacts with never an intent to disperse.
It's different to the common notion I had of what a warehouse looked like once the conversation strayed from champagne and Marks and Spencer but the hundred mile saltmine as repository because of its stable conditions is irresistible to this records manager of yore, and Amazon and Google don't just exist in cyberspace.

The sheer scale in commercial warehouses suggests Boeing manufacturing plant, NASA and the Soviet Space Centre. Go Supply Chain's inclusion of a bank vault is acceptable here because of the wider brief and it makes for a fascinating account. All that hoarded gold.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Factor in factories

If I can hyperlink ambush by foisting a National Front site on our national neighbours then I should think nothing of choosing a particularly good article from an otherwise dodgy site, right? The Richest, the otherwise e-equivalent of a scandal sheet, lists the fifteen largest factories in the world and I recommend hieing over there to see the full list, especially as number fifteen is the largest single-story building in the world.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Retail wagging

When talking about livestock or natural product resale, the search engine asks if perhaps you mean sellers not resellers. Similarly, it seems wrong to talk about pig retailers but perhaps pork retailers (?) though I think the retail of the hock or speck comes when you're in Coles or Woolies

Now, apart from learning about VaR, or Value at Risk, as we newly learneds like to say, I did wonder whether the slant of this list meant that software and supplies were the biggest resellers of any description, or whether I had missed the distinction.

It's topical so I'll milk it for all it's worth: Milk suppliers and distributors are different from dairy farmers mostly; except where the companies whose milk products appear on the shelves have a combination of dairies they own and supplies they source from other outlets - farmers.

eBay

A call from your agent

The Australian Trade Commission - which is where I need to take advice from when considering such ventures - goes to pains to explain the difference between an agent and a distributor. It's a very helpful site; managing to explain that whole Redback/Altronics thing, that distributors deal with other wholesalers and sell theirs and their own goods.

So what about agents? They're the ones who promote your wares but don't take carriage of the goods like distributors do. Try going large with agents and you end up with advertising agencies

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Vendor time comes

If you're really that interested, you could research suppliers of every stripe, vendors of a whole division. It depends what your intention is. Mine has been for the last five years but really a great deal longer, to start an enterprise.

I could use suppliers if it transpires that there are goods to be shipped (or drop shipped as the case may be) or, if I want to promote my wares, contract vendors to do the work. So this leaves the faster/greater/longer world I generally blog in and touches on something I've wanted to get started.

Not that there aren't budding entrepeneurs popping up in all sorts of places. Now there are even pop-up shops. You don't even have to bring your own cart.

Who's your supplier?

In my cursory glance at the prime movers, I've yet to separate out the terms. When I go large I get app vendors and - circling back to where it begins, the manufacturer - auto suppliers. While I'm getting an education in the different types of distributor, what sets them apart from vendors and suppliers?

Vendors supply here. Now that we've found Wikipedia dozing in the corner and they came back with this

A vendor, or a supplier, is a supply chain management term that means anyone who provides goods or services to a company or individuals.
So this means we've jumped the gun by mentioning vendors/suppliers as they include more than the wholesalers and manufacturers we've canvassed; indeed it is awfully broad. There are rooters and tooters and a pair of shooters. It was just that the official site explaining terms to fledgling Aus exporters and the like, spoke of the different types of distributors as sourcing from 'manufacturer/vendor' so I felt bound to introduce the term.

As you can deduce, if it is true that suppliers aren't always toppling the divide, it is the example they set that make it a reasonable proposition. The lot of the small supplier is less attractive.

Distributor cap

Not forgetting that, regardless of relative popularity or need to restock, our onyx distributors are also needed.

The trade sites and reseller revues will tell you more about the kind of distribution. How low do they scale and still be viable? Small manufacturers have found ways to operate at their level and vendors are in the same boat.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Wholesale swipe

I took this list of wholesale entities from ranker.com since Wikipedia - unless they have listed under Distributors - have no list of the largest wholesalers.
I hold no rancour for Ranker but I've been unable to determine whether their list is for the companies who hold the most stock in their warehouse, the ones with the furthest reach or greatest bottom line.

I do know that I like the list because it has a good balance of co-ops and chemists, and any list that leads off with an offering of the Czech Republic deserves some attention. Though it is eccentric to number your biggest wholesale companies when they have been placed in alphabetical order.

Now I've had only glancing contact with commerce other than as a customer so any number crunching is for entertainment purpose only. I am interested in the distribution, given the differences: are some things Made in China and then shipped to a warehouse in Norway? I notice that many of these humongous wholesalers are also manufacturers, which makes sense unless you are looking at names or countries on one list that don't also appear on another. Capital Health is the only name common to both.

Speaking of names, there's another clue perhaps. None of these could have been selected for their brand name recognition. No Toyotas or Samsungs here, that's for sure.

Alright so we have these big setups in sometimes unexpected countries who have a starchy and nondescript name because the spotlight falls on the retailers they service. There are even oddities like the Amerisourcebergens who must be related, and the way that Altronics carries equipment by Redback Audio somewhat confusing roles.

About Me

For minutiae around the globe
Us guys who must look good in robes
Debunking debacles with official probes
Elicting eyeballs chewing lobes
Legends legion and homespun
You can see
We're touched by the son